For 34 years, a onetime Salvation Army captain named Vere Cornwall Bird has dominated the Caribbean island of Antigua, first as boss of its sugarcane workers' union, later as chief minister and then, after Britain granted associate statehood in 1967, as Premier. Bird, now 63, turned Antigua into a jet-age Cannes of the Caribbean, complete with 33 hotels drawing 65,000 tourists annually, a casino, an oil refinery and such illustrious sojourners as Dean Acheson, Andre Kostelanetz and Aristotle Onassis. His reward was to hear 70,000 Antiguans sing happy calypsos praising "Papa Bird."...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
